Getting What You Thought You Wanted

After finishing the finale episode of HBO’s Girls (SPOILER ALERT) last night, I was left wondering about relationships. In the final episode, we see the main character finally getting what she had been chasing throughout the season – an official, labeled relationship with an artist she had been seeing. But as the story usually goes, she finds that it isn’t what she thought it would be. The problem was that she was so in-the-moment with her desires to achieve her goal of a relationship that she didn’t stop to think about the real implications of what having a relationship means.

Sound familiar? It did to me! Be honest, have you ever committed to something without really thinking everything through? There are times in life when everyone does this – whether it’s having one too many cocktails, not studying for an exam, going to sleep late when you have an early meeting, etc. Sometimes we can quickly recover from these things. However, when it comes to relationships, so much of your time becomes invested that it is not so easy to bounce back.

Whether you’re looking through your matches on eHarmony or shuffling past potential suitors in a bar, keep this in mind. Someone’s partying ways might be appealing to you now, but in 5 years when you have different priorities, will this be a deal breaker if his/her priorities haven’t changed? If you feel that you are looking for something long term, try to consider each person you meet as carefully as possible. This type of thinking now may save you from an uncomfortable breakup later.